Another day in Oxford .........
and another college to visit in Oxford, to wit the not so new, New College, which was not on our original itinerary, we just happened upon it on our meandering round Oxford with our beloved Jan the Fan and well, it would have looked rude not to avail ourselves of a little gander.
Now, we really, really loved Magdalen College, but after not a lot of debate, we decided we liked New College even betterer, because despite it's name, it turns out to be in fact one of the oldest colleges in Oxford and so even more romantic than the much mentioned Magdalen. However, we've not done its beauty enough justice as once again we were a very remiss with our photography. What are we like, other than quite overcome!
We loved the dining hall, although again Darrell noted that the furniture, like Magdalen. was a little to modern for his tastes, but he reasoned, necessary and practical for the every day knocks and bumps of every day college/student life.
However, on leaving the hall, amidst all our awe and wonder, we got a little disorientated and took a wrong turn ......
...... finding ourselves somewhere below stairs, where they even had ancient buildings within the main building we were in!
...... but also a hidden spiral staircase, where it seems the cleaners keep their mops and buckets and air their dusters well out of the sight of visitors, thus preserving the air of eternal romanticism surmised Darrell. When we eventually found our way back outside, we were greeted by a gentleman who politely asked where we were going and informing us that we had indeed ventured into private their private parts! We naturally apologised profusely and quickly made our way to the cloisters .........
...... where we spent quite some time taking in, yet again, all the memorials to the many brave, young students and tutors who gave their lives in both World Wars and marvelling at the dedication and work of others to change the world for the better. It was .......... emotional.
As there weren't any wedding celebrations going on, we were able to enter the quadrant and sit again, lost in our thoughts and partake in a little tree hugging with our beloved Jan .........
...... only to discover that the beautiful Holm Oak we had all hugged and stroked lovingly had actually featured as the Draco Malfoy tree in Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, which we now fully intend to watch when we get home. It was magical.
Though New College doesn't have a flock of deer or river flowing through it, it's grounds are surrounded by the city walls, which we all in turn felt compelled to hold on to, in the hope of becoming at one with it's history. It also has an Elizabethan Mound used in the olden days to view over said walls, but sadly not open to the likes of us modern day visitors.
Courtesy of:- https://gilbertscott.org/buildings/new-college-chapel-oxford
We thought we'd seen everything, but as we retraced our steps we found that we'd only gone and missed the chapel ........ and oh what a chapel! However, we got VERY mixed up and confused until our heads hurt, trying to find a suitable picture to replace our untaken ones until our heads hurt, because the reredos behind the alter was spookily very similar to the one we'd seen at Magdalen the day before. There was nowhere to light a candle again, but we promised Nigel that before we returned to Evesham we'd find him one, 'twas a case of so many churches with so few candles, compounded by the fact that in most cases you'd got to book your church visit before you could even enter one!
Yes, New College made quite an impression on all of us, with Nigel seriously considering asking whether his volunteer reading in school could somehow be counted as part of an A Level in order to "win" a place there! Oh dear, I feel a not so long felt want coming on!
2 comments:
It all looks wonderful, plus, having JtF there, is a superb bonus.
I'm sure, if Nigel put his mind to it, he'd get lots of A-levels. All his musing and pondering probably counts as a grade A in Philosophy, at least,
"In most cases you'd got to book your church visit before you could even enter one!"
So you can't just pop in to "say a little prayer," as Dionne Warwick would put it.
Oh such lovely memories of a tremendous weekend - and I smiled at the memory of being 'rumbled' when we strayed into 'foreign territory' - oh it was such a splendid weekend. We packed so much in to two wonderful days. I've started looking up some of the people mentioned in the plaques I photographed. Interesting and poignant indeed. JantheFan x
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